The inconvenience of scientific discovery

Spiritual resource to share: discovery


Truth is radical. In the full-blown sense of the word. It means revolutionary as well as root.

So religions – that seek to understand Truth – are one of the main vehicles to introduce Truth.

But science also offers that a vehicle through which to determine Truth.


And then you have religion and science together. Combining the two provides a way to glean what has been claimed as Truth and organize its knowledge base, separate the wheat from the chaff, find patterns, and evaluate what Truth claims.

The combination of religion and science helps us explore the true nature of reality. It includes discovery and proof. And this is what I feel we have in Christian Science.


Sometimes the concern has been expressed that it is hard to accept the radical idea in Christian Science that man is not material but is spiritual.


It made me think of the nature of scientific discovery. There are many similarities, certainly, and one of them would have to be that scientific discovery is inconvenient.

Like -- it was inconvenient to introduce the discovery that the planets did not all revolve around the earth but the sun. It was inconvenient to introduce the idea that the world was round. Centuries of agreement were on the side that the world was flat and the earth was the center of the universe. Whole systems of theology, science and education and social structures, etc were challenged until they finally yielded to the higher truth. Quite inconvenient if you are all about maintaining the status quo.

MBEddy’s radical discovery that “there is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter….” led to her conclusion that “Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness; therefore man is not material, he is spiritual.”   This may not fit the existing paradigm of thought that agrees with intelligent matter, chance and personal power.

But each and every healing through scientific prayer, each successful humanitarian endeavor that blesses more than those who initiated it, and each prayer that shows solutions that the current paradigm could not achieve – each of these things ushers in a revolutionary science where all start seeing things through a spiritual, and not material, lens.

What will happen when the radical idea of man as spiritual becomes the new normal paradigm?  I think there is enough evidence that it is going that way now.  How are systems of education, healthcare, psychology and psychiatry, theology and economy changing?  Hmmmm... interesting ideas...I feel another blog coming on.......

Note: I have been appreciating the science part of Christian Science recently and reading the study outline of Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ( an analysis of the history of science and known for popularizing the terms paradigm and paradigm shift.) And I am watching The Ascent of Man (1973) on youtube about the history of human beings through scientific endeavour. Fun stuff. I am not schooled in the physical sciences, and appreciate greatly my conversations with patient friends who are mathematicians and physical scientists! 

Another inspiring read from spirituality.com  The next ninety years : A reflection on humanity’s interest and involvement with spirituality through the centuries, and a prayerful look ahead